Inside the Ring

Taliban steps up violence

Military commanders throughout Afghanistan have notified U.S. and allied troops to expect the increase in violence and insurgent attacks to continue during the winter, as additional troops begin arriving in the country as part of the Pentagon’s latest troop surge.

The Taliban insurgents view the recently announced surge of 20,000 troops as a sign they are winning the conflict and plan to step up attacks with the goal of “bringing the fight” to their enemy, said a U.S. military officer in the region.

“They view the surge as a sign of weakness and are being spurred on to step up fighting,” the official said.

Another factor leading to an increased violence during the winter months, when fighting usually subsides due to cold weather, is Pakistan.

Recent Pakistani military operations in insurgent strongholds in Pakistan also have driven greater numbers of Pakistan-based Taliban back into Afghanistan, the officer said. “That’s OK because it gives us the opportunity to kill them here,” the officer said.

U.S. military intelligence also expects to see more improvised explosive device attacks, as well as suicide bombings in Afghanistan, like the deadly attack in a market Thursday that killed 20 people.

“IEDs are going to continue to be one of the weapons to continue to bleed us,” the official said.

START problems

Obama administration arms control officials met with their Russian counterparts in Moscow Thursday, but U.S. officials said Russia remains steadfast in several demands for a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that are opposed by the U.S. side.

The administration has been trying to push through a new treaty to replace the 1991 START pact that expired Dec. 5, but U.S. and Russian officials so far are unable to come to terms.

Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, told reporters this week that she could not say for certain that the new treaty will be finished by May.

Ms. Tauscher also disclosed at a breakfast meeting with defense reporters that differences between the United States and Russia remain. The problems include the issue of sharing telemetry data - electronic signals sent from missile flight tests - as well as the issue of U.S. opposition to Russian demands that missile defenses be included in the treaty. Nuclear modernization issues are another area in dispute.

Ms. Tauscher said the United States opposes a call for Russian monitoring of U.S. missile defense interceptors.

Defense officials said the fear is that Russia will gain valuable intelligence data that could be used to counter the missile defenses, as well as concerns the data would leak from Russia to Iran, which in the past has received support for its ballistic missile programs from Russia.

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